Ada Menken
Ada Menken is a supporting character in my Harry Potter fanfiction, Jude. Early Life Ada was born in Lower Saxony, Germany in 1917 to parents that ran the local parish at St. Nicholas' Church. She took over the run of the building after her parents passed away renting the space out to various religious groups to fund herself. She grew up during the rise of Hitler and as such was exposed to SS dealings, however, she never agreed with the condemnation of the Jewish people and so lived below the radar of the German army to avoid being put in any compromising situations. She is 26 by the time Jude begins. (1942 - 1945) Tom and Hermione Ada meets Tom in an alley after he has left a building where he seeking refuge for himself. Hermione, and the children. Ada, recognizing his predicament, states she will hide them in return for free labor inside the parish. Tom is hesitant to accept, but after using Legilimency on her (unbeknownst to Ada) he agrees and goes to fetch Hermione. Ada agrees to house Tom, Hermione, and the children as well as bring them food as long as the two teens agree to help her manage and tidy-up the building they are living over which is actually St. Nicholas' Church. The four orphans settle into the attic of the parish and help Ada during the evenings, having full run of the building on Saturdays. She visits once a week or less to bring food, toiletries and changes of clothes as the weather changes. Though initially hoping to keep a distance between herself and her residents, Ada eventually begins to linger in her visists, sometimes playing games with the children and holding on conversations with Hermione. The two females grow close and begin to confide in each other about various points in their lives. Ada expresses her sadness over what is happening to Jews all over Europe. A year into their stay, situations in Europe become more strained as the war carries on and Ada as able to bring less and less to her residents in order to avoid suspicion. In these times Tom comes to her to ask that should anything happen to herself or Hermione, she take on Greta and Simon as her own and flee the country. She agrees though only under the hopeful assumption their situation will never come to that. (1945) Fleeing Germany After an incident involving a broken window, Hermione and Tom are discovered by SS guards on February 16, 1945. As planned, Ada claims Greta and Simon as her children and Tom states that he had forced Ada to house them under fear of harm coming to them. Tom and Hermione are taken away to Bergen-Belson labor camp leaving Ada alone to take care of the children. Despaired at her friends arrest and disheartened with the state of her home country, she flees Germany. With Greta and Simon's altered papers, Ada is able to abandon St. Nicholas' Church to Switzerland, leaving word for Tom and Hermione with a trusted, elderly neighbor should they ever return. She moves with the children to the mountainous country side and lays low for the remainder of the war. After Bergen-Belson is liberated, she receives word from Tom and Hermione stating they had survived and were now returning to England. Hermione sends news of Wilhelm Trete, Ada's long time boyfriend before the war started. The three maintain regular correspondence for the rest of their lives, Ada temporarily also taking up letters with Mrs. Cole of Wool's Orphanage in order to legally adopt Greta and Simon as her own. She visits London multiple times to see Tom and Hermione later in life. Wilhelm Trete Wilhelm is a sensitive young man who has no ambitions as a soldier and was a long time friend and romantic partner of Ada Menken before the war began. Like her, he harbors no true ill will towards members of the Jewish faith, but instead enlisted in the SS to please his anti-Semitic father. In the few instances of the story that are shown from his point of view, his comrades deride him as a coward and often force him into doing the more gruesome tasks of ridding Europe of the Jews.. Wilhelm's hesitation to kill out in the streets and ghettos ultimately get him relocated to be a guard in Bergen-Belson labor camp. There he meets Hermione who recognizes him from a photograph Ada had shown her. After she confides in him that Ada housed her and others in the church for two years, Wilhelm feels an extreme guilt for having been involved in so many Jewish deaths. After this he regularly shows Hermione leniency, often saving her from picks for death marches and the gas chamber though he does not openly admit this. When the camp is liberated in 1945, Wilhelm immediately surrenders, agreeing to give up information on German army strategies and locations of other forces in the hopes of being shown mercy in the face of his war crimes. Before being taken away, Wilhelm sees Hermione again, now with Tom and in recovery. He implores her to send to Ada for him, telling her what has happened and to wait for him. It is stated that Wilhelm is eventually released and able to track down Ada in Switzerland. The two of them marry and care for Greta and Simon together sending regular news of them to Tom and Hermione in England.